Rettung durch Restrukturierung im Planverfahren (Restrukturierungsplan & Insolvenzplan)

Die enormen wirtschaftlichen Auswirkungen der weltweiten COVID-19-Pandemie haben die deutsche Wirtschaft in vielen Bereichen massiv getroffen. Für viele Branchen hat sich das Geschäftsklima erheblich verschlechtert. Geschäfte bleiben geschlossen, Lieferketten brechen ab, Reisen sind nur sehr eingeschränkt möglich, Umsätze sind deutlich zurückgegangen und Unternehmen müssen Kurzarbeit oder Zwangsurlaubeinführen, um laufende Kosten zu senken.

Die enormen wirtschaftlichen Auswirkungen der weltweiten COVID-19-Pandemie haben die deutsche Wirtschaft massiv getroffen. Für viele Branchen hat sich das Geschäftsklima erheblich verschlechtert.

The huge economic impact of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic has long since reached the German economy. For many industries, the business climate has deteriorated massively. Stores remain closed, supply chains are affected, customer numbers have significantly dropped and businesses have to impose reduced work hours (Kurzarbeit) or forced leave to reduce costs.

The Upstream C Reorganization

In the late 20th century, the IRS made a combination of unrelated decisions resulting in a proliferation of upstream C reorganizations. First was the repeal of the Bausch & Lomb rule, meaning that the equity held by a parent corporation in its subsidiary could count as continuity of interest, thus allowing the liquidation of a subsidiary to be treated as an upstream C reorganization. Second, the invention of the check-the-box regulations made subsidiary liquidations (and hence upstream reorganizations) so much easier.

LTR 201240017 is the world’s longest letter ruling, 111 pages in PDF format. Not surprisingly, it is a Section 355 ruling. It was issued three-and-a-half months after the original submission, with those dates bridging Christmas and New Year’s Day. There were seven additional submissions from the taxpayer in the interim. The release of the ruling was delayed for a couple of months.

The two most recent decisions of the Supreme Court involving federal taxes illustrate how a conservative approach to statutory interpretation tends to prevail, but only with great effort, and changing constituencies.

Hall v. United States

LTR 201214013 applies a 55 year old ruling to treat a subsidiary liquidation as a downstream D reorganization, thus preserving the basis in the liquidating subsidiary’s stock, which would not be the case if it had liquidated under section 332.

Facts. Holdco owns Parent, which owns Target Parent, which owns Target Sub. Holdco wants to wind up owning Target Sub directly, but evidently did not want to lose its basis in its Parent stock and wanted to maintain Parent in existence as an entity.

The usual Friday release of a large number of letter rulings by the IRS included several rulings of interest on reorganizations and consolidated return issues.

You will rely on section 355 for nonrecognition, but here you also must rely on section 332 to make the liquidations tax free, without any liquidation-reincorporation problem. It's very clear that you can get the results you want, but not clear why.

LTR 201123022 describes these facts, in simplified form: